This is a competing renewal of a training grant currently in its ninth year of funding. The goals of this training program are to answer the clearly perceived national need for immediate additional involvement of physicians in research in otolaryngology and communication disorders. The end result of the program is to develop a cadre of otolaryngologist clinician investigators who are well equipped to undertake an academic career. The program consists of two components, the first involving a one and one-half year of research academic training as part of the residency training of students in otolaryngology and the second component is a one- year research training program for post-resident fellows accepted into either the Neuro-otologic or Head and Neck Fellowship Programs of this Department. The philosophy underlying this training program is that rigorous structured research training in an academic environment is fundamental to the eventual success of the trainees in an academic career. Each year four applicants will be accepted into the Otolaryngology Resident Program as academic trainees and two fellows will be accepted into the post-training segment of the program. The research training opportunities under this program are a broadly based research faculty in the communication sciences that make up the faculty of the internationally recognized Kresge Hearing Research Institute, as well as the well-established Head and Neck Oncology Research Program of the Department that includes both clinical and laboratory research components. The research faculty of the Kresge Hearing Research Institute/Department of Otolaryngology consists of 15 members and a clinical faculty of 13. All faculty are presently engaged in research projects. Research programs available to the trainees range from otologic assessment of hearing loss with behavioral techniques to molecular genetic studies of head and neck tumor cells. Areas of research concentration include: Molecular, physiological, anatomical and behavioral discipline-drive research activities in the hearing sciences; immunological and biochemical programs in cancer cell biology; clinical trials in otology and head and neck cancer; developing programs in speech pathology, sinusitis and outcomes research, upper airway and fundamental research in microvascular surgery. Since the last application, additional research programs in hair cell regeneration, autoimmune hearing loss, perilymphatic fistula, adoptive immunotherapy and the molecular genetics of apoptosis have been developed. We have added a molecular biologist faculty member and will recruit two more in the next two years. The facilities of the Department are adequate to cover this diversity of experimentation and the centrally localized basic science laboratories of the Kresge Hearing Research Institute are a major strength for the development and success of this program.